Crime Briefs: Just released from custody, man loiters in police parking lot and scratches trucks

On Tuesday morning, officers at the Glenwood Springs Police Department were advised that a 30-year-old male was in the parking lot attempting to open officers’ personal cars by checking the door handles.

The man was released on a summons for a previous incident approximately one hour earlier, and had been hanging around the parking lot since then, according to the arrest affidavit.

An officer approached the man, but he could only see him from the chest up as he was between two trucks. The man was facing the officer. The officer ordered him to put his hands up, and he did not. The officer drew his Taser and again ordered to see the man’s hands. He did not comply. He was ordered to turn around and place his hands on top of his head. Another officer then “went hands on” with the man and attempted to handcuff him.

“(The man) immediately became resistive towards officers,” according to the affidavit. “(He) turned around and faced officers and clinched both of his fists and brought them towards his chest making a fighting stance.” The man was given several orders to stop resisting.

The fight then went to the ground with the 30-year-old continuing to resist. An officer delivered a knee strike “striking him in the upper stomach and chest area.” The man made his body rigid and would not turn over to be handcuffed. A lieutenant then grabbed the man by his foot and dragged him out from between the trucks. The previous officer then “administered another knee strike” in his right side ribcage.

“We were eventually able to gain some compliance from (him) and place him into handcuffs,” an officer wrote in the report. The man was then escorted to the jail.

It was discovered that there were “several deep scratches” on both trucks’ driver’s side doors.

The man was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, and misdemeanors of criminal tampering and resisting arrest.

PUPILS TELL ALL

At around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, a Silt police officer “observed a suspicious vehicle” at the Park and Ride.

“I pulled in so my headlights were facing the driver’s side of the vehicle,” the officer wrote in the arrest affidavit.

A 30-year-old man was sleeping in the driver’s seat and the rear of the vehicle “appeared to be loaded with a lot of personal belongings.”

The officer approached the vehicle and the man woke up. He said he was waiting for a friend and thought the officer’s headlights were “a bright street light.”

“While speaking with him, he would not make eye contact with me,” the officer wrote. “The male exhibited a very rapid speech when he was speaking to me.”

The officer observed a near-empty bottle of Vodka near the center console. When asked if the man had anything to drink that night, he said no.

The man was asked to exit the vehicle. The officer observed the man’s pupils were “pin point constricted.” The officer asked him to turn to face away from the headlights. His pupils did not dilate.

The officer asked if he was on any prescription medication or drugs. The man said no. The officer noticed no odor of alcohol coming from the man.

Upon searching the vehicle, a homemade glass water pipe and sunglasses case were found in the driver’s door pocket. “The pipe was not a Marijuana pipe,” the officer wrote. Inside the sunglasses case were “several baggies with white crystal substance consistent with Methamphetamine inside.”

The man was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful use of a controlled substance, open alcoholic beverage container and possession of drug paraphernalia.

RIFLE FELON WITH A RIFLE

On Wednesday evening, officers were conducting a home visit in Rifle with a 61-year-old man who had previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of possession with intent to distribute and possession of a schedule II substance in 2005 and 2013, respectively. During the visit, officers observed a rifle sitting on the man’s bed.

Officers retrieved the rifle and ran the serial number, which came back clear according to the arrest affidavit.

When an officer asked the 61 year old why he had a gun, the man said someone named “Bryan” was staying at the house and brought the gun. The man insisted he did not know the gun was in the house.

“I told (him) that the rifle was laying sideways across his bed and did not see how he could sleep in the bed without having to move the rifle,” an officer wrote in the affidavit. “He again told me that he did not know it was there.”

A further search of the house by an officer and K-9 partner uncovered glass pipes with white and black residues, along with two Ziploc bags containing a clear crystallized substance, consistent with methamphetamine.

The 61-year-old man was arrested on charges of possession of weapons by a previous offender, unlawful possession of a Schedule II substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

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